The picket today was the 6th Sat. in a row. Gregg had a mild cold,
but between Boudwin van Ingen (Bogie@xs4all.nl) being in town on the
last stage of his arscc sponsored Canadian tour and Gregg having read
a poster about this weekend being some kind of event, we could not
miss today even if it was a bit chilly. As we have come to expect, it
did not rain. It started to rain lightly on the party as we left.

The three of us started about 11:20 and put in two shifts, taking a
break in Starbucks to warm up in between. As usual I was on the far
side of the street. Gregg hung out in front of the org since the org
had permits to block off both a half block of St. Mary street and its
sidewalks. The org is on the corner of Yonge St. and St. Mary. The
event was an R6, "there is no Christ," festival. Actually, they got a
bunch of kids and adults there to sing Christmas carols. The org does
not have nearly enough kids for this, so many of the kids were their
kids friends (rent a munchkin) borrowed for the day.

At one point early in the picket there were at least 9 cops there.
Two undercover cops, two uniform cops, a patrol car cop and 4 bike
cops. This for 2 picketers, three if you count me across the street.

One of the undercover cops became curious about what Gregg had to say
and asked for the Xenu and Children Sec Check flyers. After reading
the flyers and discussing scientology sales tactics, the cop agreed
scientology was on a par with the Gypsy curse (give me $500 to get rid
of your curse) scam. The cop also observed that the city of Toronto
hardly has the budget to take on scientology for their criminal
activities, unless, of course, the province or the feds were to
finance the investigation that Gregg is pressing various government
officials about.

At first the female half of the goon squad showed up. They almost
sprained their necks "not looking" when Gregg made his announcements
between the R6 carols. "This entertainment brought to you by the Cult
of Greed and Power." "Scientology processing is guaranteed not to
rip, run, ravel, or smell bad." "Next right here on our stage will be
Xenu the Galactic Overlord and his dancing Body Thetans." etc.

First time Gregg did the "entertainment" announcement, someone (Al
maybe) rushed to turn on fill in music, almost knocking over the
table.

One really amusing thing is that a bunch of dianetics people were
trapped by Gregg being outside.

The irony of scientologists singing Christmas carols was not lost on
the locals, many of whom commented to Gregg and Bogie about the
hypocrisy involved. They got many words of praise from the passers by
causing one of the cops to comment how Gregg and Bogie were "real
crowd pleasers."

The R6 carolers alternated between children and adults till they
figured out that Gregg was not spoiling the kids fun of singing with
announcements when the kids were on. Thereafter the adults had to sit
on the bench. Gregg remarked that while the kids were cutely off key,
the adults all sang in the key of H (demolished).

After we took a break to warm up, they brought out the male goons.
The usual suspects, Peter Ramsay (keeping his distance in case Gregg
whipped out OT 3) Andy Hill, Daffy Dan Bryenton and Brian McPherson.

After a while the male goon squad once again began badgering Gregg, so
Gregg decided to make head goony Brian McPherson sweat a bit about the
last time Brian blew the org (ain't inside information great!)
Needless to say, McPherson almost blew a gasket.

For extra amusement, Daffy Dan tried to convince the cops that Gregg
was a mad stalker. This of course did not sell since the undercover
cop apparently knew all about scientologist picketing Gregg's home,
stalking picketers in Toronto, and even traveling as far away as St
Catherines to bother Kim and directly harass her children.

Early in the picket, 4 bike cops came over, probably called in by Al
Buttnor. Al looked so pleased, but it turned utterly sour when the
biggest of the bike cops gave Gregg a friendly pat on the shoulder and
asked how he was doing like an old friend (which he was, being one of
the good cops who kept the goon squad under strict control some years
ago.)

Apparently the undercover cops had been brought in because the org
insisted the picketers would have disruptive people in the crowd.
From what Gregg could see, the "crowd" which never got very large
consisted of almost entirely scientologists plus guests the
scientologists had convinced to come along. Boy did that backfire!
Many of these people were listening carefully to what Gregg was saying
about scientology, reading his picket sign and taking flyers. Gregg
didn't even try and people took over 100 flyers.

Gregg was handing out the children's sec check as well as the Xenu
flyer today. One of teen age girls (a guest about 14) took one. She
and another wog friend were discussing it with a scientology
girlfriend of about the same age. The gist of the conversation went
that at first the friends could not believe this was for real. Then
when the scientology girl confirmed they were subjected to having
these questions asked them upon occasions one of the Wog girls said
they would tell parents to "fuck off" if they her asked such
questions. After admonishing her wog friend not to swear, the scn
girl said "my mom doesn't ask the questions, an auditor does and my
mom has to pay for it." At this point, Val Hill (last week's boohoo
clam) jumped on the girls and herded them hastily into the org,
realizing the wog girls were now PTS.

LIke two previous times, a scientologist came over to photograph or
tape me. This time the guy was one of the goon squad, I got a
complete description of him on tape and Gregg has video tape. But
other than knowing him as a goon squad member Gregg didn't know his
name.

Notably absent form the goon squad were Gwen Jones and Paulette
Layton. Doubtless Paulette is working in a cheese factory souring
milk just by looking at it.

Talking with Gregg, one officer observed there was a missing age
bracket. There were adults of 40 and up, and kids 15 and below.

Gregg felt today's picket was particularly successful because the
majority of the scientologist in Ontario, their family and friends
were exposed at length to entheta about scientology. Particularly
effective were the statements "There are no OTs, otherwise I would not
be here" and "If what I have to say about scientology is not truth,
they have the money to shut me up and they have failed to do so for 5
years."

Keith Henson

PS as an amusing after thought, this was a drug free marshals event.
There were a mess of sponsors listed, but scientology was not amount
them. Of course, scientology does not spend a cent on community
acclivities since it is "rewarding the downstat." Still getting
others pay for their PR seems raw even tor them.

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